Our guest room transformation is probably my favorite of our house, not necessarily because of the dramatic difference in the room, but more so because for so long this was such a sad, sad room. When we moved in to our home, the LM had just turned one and I was about 8 weeks pregnant with our second baby. The upstairs room was smaller in size and we knew it would make a perfect nursery. I had plans to turn it in to just that when I learned that I had miscarried somewhere along the way. As devastating as this was, I was sure that soon we would be having another child, so I simply kept a pull-out sofa from our former residence in there in case we had guests. After a few months I got tired of looking at the empty walls and eventually created a pseudo playroom for the LM which was great because I finally had a place to store the mountain of toys that come with a toddler.
I never wanted to touch the room until we had a baby, since at the time I was so sure would happen any day the "old fashioned way" and during the two years of infertility, 6 rounds of clomid, and 2 rounds of IVF, I basically just shut the door to the room and pretended like it didn't exist. Consider me as the Elsa before my time (that's a Frozen reference for those of you without kids who haven't been forced to watch the film 20,000 times.)
Before:
Eventually I just let it all go (see what I did there ;)) and the happy ending is that we conceived our little Gray Gray during our IVF second transfer and I finally was able to fill the room with the love and joy it always deserved. I won't go too into the nursery design, but again I roped in my mother-in-law to help me paint an accent wall (seriously, I need to send that woman a huge thank you) and at the last minute had the yellow stripes added. I think I might have actually been going in to labor as the paint was drying! I would have painted the whole room in that navy (which is by Serena and Lily) but I was way too far into my pregnancy to make that kind of effort. The room turned out better than I imagined and for three years it was the perfect spot for our early riser... as in it far away from the rest of us!
Once we made the decision to move the boys together I wasted no time in turning the space into the guest room of my dreams. For real. After their first successful night together I took apart the crib and ordered the bed just so I couldn't turn back. My sister, who is the closest person on earth to our family, lives an hour away and since she was kicked out of the LM's room I wanted to make sure that she would have a space in our home ASAP. You long time readers know that I decided to take on the paint job myself, and as luck would have it my husband had just had surgery, and all four of us came down with the stomach flu in the middle of the project. I had already painted over the accent wall and had to keep going before all my brushes dried, so against all odds I was able to finish painting the room and transforming the space in just four short days. The second I washed out the last paintbrush and roller I looked at my husband and swore that's the last time I'd ever paint anything again. So far I've stuck by that.
The design I was going for was clean, bright, with a Malibu Beach House sort of feel. I knew I wanted to keep the stripes so I had to keep the rest of the room pretty neutral so it wouldn't be to juvenile. I kept the personal effects to a minimum because I wanted it to have a hotel room feel. Keeping that in mind, I cleaned out the closet from top to bottom and left only some white wood hangers, some of our linens, and a coffee pot for guests. I probably would have picked up a terry robe if I thought my husband wouldn't have laughed at me for the rest of my life.
The room came together better than I imagined and I really thought it was prefect until I spent a night up there with a hacking cough and realized the bed was far to hard. A quick stop on Amazon Prime for my absolute favorite product, and now it's just the best spot to sleep in the house. Proof that you should always seep in your guest room before you have actual guests! The curtains which remained from the nursery are black-out and I placed our "never leave home without it" noise machine behind the bed, and I'm not kidding when I say I beg to sleep up there! It's as far away from the kids as you can be so on a Sunday morning it's just as close as you can get to a vacation! On the wall opposite the bed (not pictured) I had a stunning Slim Arrons photograph printed on acrylic (such a great affordable framing option) and when you are lying in bed it really feels like you are looking out a window at the pool!
Okay, I'll stop fawning now and just let you all see the afters.
After:
Oh, and that sad little TV cart? Don't worry, he too got a makeover and now lives in our entryway as a place to put all our shoes, gloves and hats. I had a custom cushion and some pillows made with some beautiful indoor/ outdoor Trina Turk fabric which I purchased at a discount from this incredible source. Remember, just because something is made for one purpose, doesn't man it can't work in another as well!
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Paint - Ben Moore Super White
Drapery (two panels seen together)
Blanket- West Elm (sold out)
Tray- West Elm (sold out)
Plant- ikea
Pink surf picture- I spray painted this frame and cut a picture out of one of my husband's magazines. This is a great way to get affordable art, especially if you are creating a gallery wall.
Oh Happy Day print
I'll be back tomorrow with a tour of our three bathrooms, which will include all the details of those BumbleBee stamps! xx
Nursery photography by Jamie Arnold Baird
After photography by Sarah Winchester
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